Also a great essay and, I believe, retitled for the collection it later was a part of called "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again". A title which perfectly captured how I thought about the first (and last) cruise I ever took.
Funny; the essay made me want to go a cruise even more! I still agree that it is one of his finest essays. I rank it up there with The String Theory, which is my personal favorite.
If you're going to read this (or really any DFW) don't skip the footnotes. Yes it's tedious flipping back and forth, but it's so very worth it.
Yes, it's all part of the experience. Reportedly, DFW liked the idea of jarring readers out of a steady progression through his text and used all kinds of notes to effect this.